Ican’t help but make Ella McCay sound incredible to everyone I talk to about it, even though that’s not my intention, and even though Ella McCay is incredible only in the “Can you believe that actually happened?” sense. Some things you just have to see with your own eyes, and the first new film in 15 years from writer-director James L. Brooks is one of them. Despite being the work of someone who co-created one of the most successful TV series of all time in The Simpsons and who won Best Picture for the classic weepy Terms of Endearment , Ella McCay feels like outsider art — like it was made without any familiarity with the conventions of narrative structure or character beats. It aims for a tone of screwball comedy but misses not just that target but the whole damn dartboard, lan

See Full Page